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The SMH has an article on the resignation of former leader Malcolm Fraser from the Liberal party, on the grounds it is no longer liberal, having become thoroughly infected with the disease of conservatism – ‘Leftie’ Fraser leaves party that left him. Crikey has more.

In resigning from the Liberal Party, Malcolm Fraser could well invoke the line that Ronald Reagan used to explain why he quit the Democratic Party – “I didn’t leave the party, the party left me.”

Since the end of his prime ministership 27 years ago, the Liberals have moved a long way to the right, leaving Fraser increasingly angry and isolated in the party he once led.

The prime minster who was attacked by Labor as being a granite-faced arch-conservative in the 1980s was in January derided by the Liberals’ Sophie Mirabella as a “frothing-at-the-mouth leftie.”

The surprising thing about Fraser isn’t that he resigned in disgust.

Accusing John Howard of being “inhumane” with asylum seekers and Tony Abbott of being guilty of “pure Hansonism,” the surprise is that he kept his membership so long.

The closest the Liberal Party has come to revisiting the liberalism of Fraser was its brief flirtation with that other Malcolm, Turnbull.

Turnbull lost the leadership in a clash over support for an emissions trading scheme to deal with climate change.

In this, Turnbull had Fraser’s full support.

Fraser last October endorsed a call by 40 scientists calling on the Government to make “every effort” to cut carbon emissions and lead global negotiations.

When did the Liberals tear down Turnbull and replace him with Tony Abbott? December 1 last year. When did Fraser quit the party? In December. This is no coincidence.

Since the fall of the Fraser government, the Liberals have moved to the right in every major realm of policy. …

The Iraq war particularly rankled with Fraser: “A good ally doesn’t just go along with whatever Americans want, and I am sure that George Bush senior and his colleagues agree with me,” he said in 2007.

“In some important quarters in America, we are held in contempt for being George W. Bush’s puppy dog.”

China’s largest auto parts maker forecasts that Chinese demand for copper could surge another 12% this year.

Copper is used for wiring in buildings, infrastructure, cars, and appliances, thus says much about growth in the economy.

Hellenic Shipping News:

“Consumption is still strong,” driven by continued economic growth, said Sheng Weimin from the unit of Wanxiang Group, the country’s largest auto-parts maker. Demand, including refined and scrap copper, may climb to 8.96 million metric tons, said Sheng, who’s studied metals markets for more than 15 years.

…

“Demand from downstream consumers is very good, their order books are full, but they are buying hand-to-mouth because no one wants to hold too much inventory in these uncertain times,” Sheng said, referring to car parts and appliance makers.

This comes on the heels of Australian miner Rio Tinto forecasting that global demand for copper, plus iron ore and aluminum, will double over the next fifteen years.

Join the conversation about this story »

(May 25th 2010) The international community must pledge financial support to rebuild the lives of those affected by Cyclone Aila, which hit Bangladesh a year ago, says Oxfam. With the threat of an impending monsoon, communities are still waiting for damaged embankments to be rebuilt so that they can return to their homes.

When Cyclone Aila swept across areas of southern Bangladesh and eastern India on 25 May 2009, it caused widespread damage and affected around three million people. In southern Bangladesh, the cyclone caused a tidal surge which broke through poorly maintained coastal embankments. In south western districts, especially in Shatkhira and Kulna, people living in the coastal villages were forced to flee to raised embankments as houses and crops became submerged under water.

Gareth Price Jones, the Country Director of Oxfam in Bangladesh said, “It is unfortunate to see that the international community did not fulfil their pledge to provide 1.15 billion U.S. dollars to rehabilitate cyclone Aila victims.

Today in the Shatkhira and Khulna districts only 45km of the 729km of damaged embankments have been reconstructed so far. People cannot return to their homesteads, as different points of breached embankments have not yet been repaired, due to inadequate resources and a lack of action. *

Over the last year Oxfam has continued to lobby the local and national government to take immediate steps to reconstruct damaged embankments to protect communities and their land from saline water.

While more than 100,000 people have fled to other parts of the country since the cyclone struck, some 125,000 people are still living in makeshift shelters on the embankments, struggling with basic needs such as shelter, clean drinking water and food. *

‘One year after cyclone Aila and I am still living on the embankments. Nothing has changed in my life, things have got worse. I need pure drinking water, a house and the means to make a living,” said Shorbanu Khatun, a resident of Shatkhira.

More than three million people have been suffering due to a lack of clean drinking water since the cyclone. Only 5-7 percent of the population in the area are living where tube-wells have been installed. The average distance for others to fetch drinking water is about 4 km. *

Oxfam has so far provided 12,000 families with 1.5 millions litres of safe drinking water as well as over 9000 families with shelter. It has also provided sanitation and a means of making a living to many families.

Around 60 percent of government schools in the affected areas are still inaccessible due to water logging or due to the lack of infrastructure. Many children cannot attend school, especially girls due to inadequate sanitation facilities.

With an impending monsoon the situation can only worsen unless the international community makes immediate arrangements to help people to cope and have access to food, shelter, safe drinking water and sanitation. Further delay will only increase the suffering of those affected.
Oxfam is also lobbying the Bangladesh government and international community for longer-term initiatives to rebuild the affected areas and help communities be better prepared for future disasters.

ENDS

 

Note to Editors

 

* According to the latest assessment by an alliance of INGOs involved in the response to cyclone Aila.

For further information or to arrange an interview contact Jonaid Jilani, +44 (0) 1865 181514 / +44  (0) 7810 181514 / [email protected]

Photos and caption can be found at

http://wordsandpictures.oxfam.org.uk/?c=6845&k=6423dedbd2

Parvez , a Bangladeshi singer’s call to help those affected by cyclone Aila.

http://www.oxfamblogs.org/southasia/?p=154

Online privacy issues are a big deal these days and a couple of the biggest web companies online, Google and Facebook, have been feeling the heat lately. Both are taking steps in ensuring that they meet the users’ demands. Google is now offering a way to opt out of analytics tracking with Google Analytics on any website that uses the tool. User… (read more)

Via Prison Planet.com » Commentary

The Economic Collapse
May 26, 2010

As the number of bank failures in the United States continues to accelerate, many analysts are warning that we could soon see unprecedented changes in the U.S. banking industry.  In fact, there are some economists that are warning that we could be about to witness the greatest banking consolidation in U.S. history.  As dozens of small and medium size banks have failed, the megabanks have systematically been gobbling up larger and larger slices of market share.  In fact, if current trends continue, it doesn’t take much imagination to foresee a future where the entire U.S. banking industry has been consolidated down to between 5 and 10 “superbanks”.  So would that be so bad?  Well, yes it would.  It would represent a massive shift in financial power away from the American people to big, global corporate banks.  But if you happen to be a fan of big, global corporate banks perhaps you will really love what is about to happen to the U.S. banking industry.   

On Friday, federal regulators seized Pinehurst Bank, which brought the total number of U.S. banks closed this year to 73.  At this point in 2009, only 36 banks had failed.

That means that the number of bank failures has doubled compared to the same time period a year ago.

Is that a good trend?

Well, it is a good trend if you are one of the megabanks that is gobbling up the remnants of these banks that were ”small enough to fail”. 

And the sad thing is that we are likely to see dozens and dozens more small and medium size banks fail in the coming months.

The FDIC recently announced that the number of banks on its “problem list” climbed to 702 at the end of 2009.  That is extremely alarming considering the fact that only 552 banks were on the problem list at the end of September 2009 and only 252 banks that were on the problem list at the end of 2008.

In fact, the FDIC is expecting so many banks to fail that they are opening up new offices just to handle all the expected failures.  The FDIC has opened a massive 100,000 square foot satellite office near Chicago that will house up to 500 temporary staffers and contractors to manage receiverships and liquidate assets from what they are expecting will be a gigantic wave of failed Midwest banks.  Not only that, but the FDIC has also opened similar offices in Irvine, California and Jacksonville, Florida. 

But can the FDIC realistically handle all of these bank failures?

No.

The FDIC is backing 8,000 banks that have a total of $13 trillion in assets with a deposit insurance fund that is basically flat broke. 

So if the FDIC completely runs out of money, where will all the necessary funds come from?

From U.S. taxpayers of course.

It seems that we are the ultimate bailout machine.

Meanwhile, the biggest U.S. banks are hoarding cash in preparation for hard times.  In fact, the biggest banks in the United States cut their collective small business lending balance by another 1 billion dollars in November 2009.  That drop was the seventh monthly decline in a row.

The truth is that in 2009, the biggest U.S. banks posted their sharpest decline in lending since 1942. 

So what were they doing with their money?

Well, thanks to the Federal Reserve, the megabanks were using the U.S. Treasury carry trade to make huge gobs of cash.  In fact, the little game that they are playing with U.S. Treasuries is working so well that four of the biggest U.S. banks (Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup) had a “perfect quarter” with zero days of trading losses during the first quarter of 2010.

The truth is that the game is rigged to benefit the largest financial institutions, and they are slowly but surely gobbling up the entire U.S. banking market.  

Back in 2000, the “Big Four” U.S. banks – Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo – held approximately 22 percent of all deposits in FDIC-insured institutions.  As of June 30th of last year that figure was up to 39 percent.

The Founding Fathers of this country warned us of the danger of big banks getting too much power, but we have not listened to their warnings.

Now we have monolithic global banks that are so immense in size that we seem almost powerless to control them.

In fact, the six biggest banks in the United States (Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo) now possess assets equivalent to 60 percent of America’s gross national product.

And there is every indication that they are only going to get bigger and more dominant – especially if there is a major economic downturn ahead.

Unfortunately, that is what a number of respected economists are forecasting.

For example, Bob Chapman of the International Forecaster recently warned his readers that things could get really, really bad by the end of 2010…. 

It should interest you to know that my Intel source inside the Fed says absolutely no later than November the banking system should implode. Presently 75% of banks have problems and that the top 5 banks will take over all the others in a general nationalization. There is tremendous fear and uneasiness in the banking world.

Now, let us hope that Bob Chapman’s source is wrong.  Certainly the U.S. banking system is in a state of complete and total chaos, but hopefully we can make it into 2011 without a complete implosion of the banking industry. 

However, Bob Chapman has been in the industry for decades and he would not have put out a warning like this without good reason.  Let us just pray that what this source is warning of does not actually come to pass.

But Bob Chapman is not the only one warning of difficult times ahead. 

CNBC recently quoted Brian Kelly, the founder of Kanundrum Capital, as saying that the chances of a global depression breaking out have increased dramatically in recent days….

“Two weeks ago I would give the global depression scenario a one percent chance, but the chances have increased to 10 percent today.”

In fact, world famous economist Nouriel Roubini is absolutely convinced that there is a good deal of economic trouble ahead of us….

“We are still in the middle of this crisis and there is more trouble ahead of us, even if there is a recovery. During the great depression the economy contracted between 1929 and 1933, there was the beginning of a recovery, but then a second recession from 1937 to 1939. If you don’t address the issues, you risk having a double-dip recession and one which is at least as severe as the first one.”

So will the end of 2010 be a very difficult time for the U.S. economy?

Only time will tell.

But what does seem certain is that small and medium size banks will continue to fail in large numbers, and the big dominant banks will continue to gobble up market share.

We are witnessing a dramatic consolidation of the U.S. banking industry, and the only question seems to be how fast it is all going to play out.

Via Prison Planet.com » World News

Tobias Buck and Roula Khalaf
Financial Times
Wednesday, May 26th, 2010

At 11am on Wednesday, hundreds of thousands of Israelis will hear a warning siren and dash to bunkers and safe rooms across the country. The army and rescue services will practise their response to a massive missile attack, marking the climax of an ambitious home-front exercise.

Despite government assurances that the drill is a yearly routine, political leaders in Lebanon and Syria have accused Israel of warmongering.

Whether by accident or design, the five-day exercise has fuelled speculation over a renewed military clash between Israel and Hizbollah, the Lebanese Shia group backed by Iran and Syria.

Israel’s northern neighbours are not alone in voicing concerns about the potential for more bloodshed. In recent weeks, Israeli politicians have repeatedly warned that the threat posed by Hizbollah’s rapidly improving arsenal is reaching a critical level.

Full article here

by Kevin Jon Heller

A couple of years ago, I blogged about how Salim Hamdan was prosecuted in a military commission for conspiring to commit the non-existent war crime “murder in violation of the law of war.”  Hamdan was acquitted on that count, but the crime is starring again in the unconscionable prosecution of child-soldier Omar Khadr.  That’s unfortunate in itself — but what is particularly unfortunate is that, according to the Vancouver Sun, Harold Koh and the State Department tried to get the charges dismissed but were rebuffed by the Department of Defense:

Officials in the Obama administration demanded a game-changing rule change for the Guantanamo Bay military tribunal that would have likely scuttled the war crimes murder charge against Canadian-born terror suspect Omar Khadr, Canwest News Service has learned.

The officials sought to strip a new commissions manual of a law-of-war murder definition that is central to Khadr’s prosecution in the mortal wounding of Special Forces Sgt. First Class Chris Speer during a 2002 firefight in Afghanistan, insiders say.

Omission of the segment could have also obliged prosecutors to trim or abandon “up to one-third” of its cases, according to one inside estimate. Prosecutors said in the wake of the Bush administration they were prepared to take about 60 Guantanamo detainees to trial — among them the accused co-conspirators of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

The Pentagon issued its 281-page Manual for Military Commissions on the eve of hearings April 28 to May 6 in the Khadr case after the U.S. Congress updated the Bush-era Military Commissions Act with legislation President Barack Obama said makes them fair. Prosecution and defence teams use the courtroom rules to present their cases, but a new manual was necessary to conform to the legislative changes in the 2009 act.

The failed bid to change part of law-of-war murder rule — as well as separate arguments insiders say took place over other rules — illustrates how the commissions remain a point of division in the Obama administration. Numerous appointees — and even Obama himself — were sharply critical of the tribunals after the Bush administration launched them as a key tool in its post-9/11 “war on terror.”

[snip]

Among those leading the charge against the contested murder segment was Harold Koh, Obama-nominated legal adviser of the State Department, who once wrote that the U.S. was part of an “axis of disobedience” along with North Korea and Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.

[snip]

U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates signed off on the manual with the contested “comment” intact after Jeh Johnson, his legal adviser, went head-to-head with Koh, one official recounted.

“Harold Koh doesn’t have any authority over the defence department,” said this official. “The general counsel of DOD was fighting Koh on it; he advises Secretary Gates . . . who is going to follow his own lawyer.”

As the article notes, and as Scott Horton discusses here, Koh and the State Department had an ulterior motive in opposing the crime — they are worried that it might come back to haunt the US’s drone program:

The pretext for demanding the draft-rule edit centred on concern about defending the legitimacy of Central Intelligence Agency drone attacks on terror suspects in Pakistan, one insider confided.

According to this official, it was feared that aspects of the commission manual’s “comment” in the section titled Murder in Violation of the Law of War could be applied to the attacks. Key among the contested phrasing is a statement that says murder and some other offences rise to the level of war crimes if committed “while the accused did not meet the requirements of privileged belligerency” — which principally covers regular war law-abiding combatants.

Their fears are legitimate.  The war crime doesn’t exist under international law regardless of whether the US pretends that it does.  But the US would find it very difficult to argue that another country could not prosecute a CIA agent involved in a drone strike for “murder in violation of the law of war” given its willingness to prosecute Khadr (and apparently dozens of others) for the same crime.

Stay tuned!

P.S.  It’s worth noting that four of the five “war crimes” Khadr allegedly committed do not actually exist under international law: murder in violation of the law of war, attempted murder in violation of the law of war, conspiracy, and material support for terrorism.  The only one that does exist — though the charge sheet does not provide much information about what Khadr allegedly did — is spying.

P.P.S.  For a very interesting discussion of “murder in violation of the law of war” as municipal, common law offense, see my friend John Dehn’s article in the Journal of International Criminal Justice here.

EUR/USD (short term):. The pair should fall to it’s support after a limited rebound. Sell under: 1.2400. TP at 1.2250 and 1.2180. Key levels: 1.2045, 1.2180, 1.2250, 1.2324, 1.2400, 1.2480, 1.2600

GBP/USD (short term): The pair should fail to break resistance. Sell under 1.4450. TP 1.4330 and 1.4260. Key levels: 1.4150, 1.4260, 1.4330, 1.4414, 1.4450, 1.4530, 1.4635

EUR/JPY (short term): The pair is likely to break above declining trend line resistance. Buy above 110.40. TP 111.90 and 113.00. Key levels: 107.65, 108.80, 110.40, 111.32, 111.90, 113.00, 114.50

GBP/JPY (short term): The pair is on the upside. Buy above 129.00. TP 130.50 and 131.50. Key levels: 126.75, 127.70, 129.00, 130.17, 130.50, 131.50, 132.80

Click for actual Quotes

Click for Economic Calendar

Source: Forexyard

Related posts:

1. Technical Analysis /12:10 GMT/ (EUR/USD, GBP/USD, EUR/JPY, GBP/JPY) 25.05.2010.
2. Technical Analysis /latest update/ (EUR/USD, GBP/USD, EUR/JPY, GBP/JPY, USD/JPY) 22.05.2010.
3. Technical Analysis /11:50 GMT/ (EUR/USD, GBP/USD, EUR/JPY, GBP/JPY) 21.05.2010.

Via Prison Planet.com » World News

Kathrin Hille
Financial Times
Wednesday, May 26th, 2010

The commander of US forces in the Pacific has warned that China’s military is more aggressively asserting its territorial claims in regional waters.

Admiral Robert Willard told the Financial Times: “There has been an assertiveness that has been growing over time, particularly in the South China Sea and in the East China Sea.”

He said China’s extensive claims to islands and waters in the region were “generating increasing concern broadly across the region and require address”.

The admiral’s remarks follow complaints by Japan in recent weeks about aggressive behaviour from a Chinese coastguard vessel in contested waters and a Chinese military helicopter in international waters.

Full article here

Shamed biker enthusiast Jesse James says a history of physical and emotional battery in his childhood drove him to rehab after his infidelities and a sex scandal made headlines in March.

When asked if he was being treated for sex addiction or anger management on ABC News’ Nightline on Tuesday night, Jesse replied: “Those were two of the things I was there for but the main thing I was there for was being a victim of childhood abuse.”

Jesse — who cops to cheating on estranged wife Sandra Bullock with at least four women – entered Arizona’s Sierra Tucson Rehab Facility last month, and while he was getting treatment for sex addiction and anger management, Jesse says he most passionately wanted to settle his lifelong fear of his estranged father

The 40-year-old father of three – who lived with his dad Larry James following his parents’ divorce -recalls a lifetime of walking on eggshells.

“My whole childhood I never had a chance to be a kid.I remember the clenched-teeth, strained-neck look on his face. He beat my a*s pretty good a bunch of times. Football star, bike builder, Monster Garage TV star-all that stuff is a huge smokescreen so people won’t see that I’m a scared, abused kid, a seven-year-old.”

Larry — who insists the ex-reality star is a Nazi apologist — has denied the abuse allegations.

Via Prison Planet.com » Sci Tech

James Delingpole
London Telegraph
May 26, 2010

IPCC lies, cheats, distorts again. Yes, all right, it is a bit of a “dog bites man” or “pizza found to contain mozzarella and tomato resting on dough base” kind of story. But on the day in which Britain’s new Prime Minister announced in the Queen’s speech that one of his government’s main goals is to “combat climate change”, it’s perhaps just as well to remind ourselves of the kind of junk science and misinformation that is inspiring his green policies. (Hat tip: Barry Woods)

This one comes from the great Canadian blogger Donna Laframboise, who has noticed that the most recent report (2007) by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change liberally cited a scientific paper which wasn’t published until 29 months after the cut off date for submissions.

“Ah what’s 29 months between friends?” you might say. But as Laframbroise rightly observes it strips the process of its integrity.

If IPCC authors are to accurately describe the scientific literature, an agreed-upon cutoff date is required. If expert reviewers are to comment on the IPCC’s use of that literature, they must be afforded adequate opportunity to examine it.

More sinister still, though, is the way the IPCC report has twisted the paper – by one David G Vaughan of the British Antarctic Survey – for its own ends. Here’s what Vaughan’s paper said about the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS).

Since most of WAIS is not showing change, it now seems unlikely that complete collapse of WAIS, with the threat of a 5-m rise in sea level, is imminent in the coming few centuries.

Note that phrase “it now seems unlikely”.

Now see how the IPCC interprets Vaughan’s paper:

If the Amundsen Sea sector were eventually deglaciated, it would add about 1.5 m to sea level, while the entire West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) would account for about 5 m (Vaughan, 2007).

Yes, yes, IPCC no doubt it WOULD. But as the report you cite to prove it made pretty explicit: IT AIN’T GOING TO HAPPEN.

Full article here

Via Prison Planet.com » Prison Planet

James Kirkup and Andrew Porter
London Telegraph
Monday, May 24th, 2010

Workers who have saved to invest in shares and property will face higher taxes on their assets, the Government confirmed.

The Queen’s Speech ended hopes of a climb-down on tax rises for the middle classes, with an unqualified commitment to increase capital gains tax. It also set out plans to raise taxes on the pay of those earning more than £45,000 and paved the way for bringing forward an increase in the retirement age.

As part of the coalition deal between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, David Cameron accepted many of the principles of Lib Dem tax policy.

Drawing protests from some senior Conservatives and many Tory voters, the coalition is drawing up plans to make middle-ranking professionals pay more tax while low-earners pay less. The most controversial proposal is for an increase in CGT, the tax applied to sales of assets including second homes, buy-to-let properties and share portfolios.

Full article here

Eco Factor: Net-zero energy home developed by Dow Chemical Company.

The Dow Chemical Company and Cobblestone Homes have introduced Michigan’s first affordable net-zero energy home. Using readily available energy efficiency technologies from Dow, the house, dubbed the “Vision Zero” home is expected to save $3,507 in energy costs and avert 44,855 lbs of CO2 annually.

The Vision Zero home utilizes a variety of energy solutions from Dow and is proof that homeowners can affordably enjoy all the comforts of the modern home, with a reduced environmental impact and still achieve a net-zero utility bill.

The Vision Zero home includes next-generation insulation and air-sealing products, and the revolutionary new Solar Shingles developed by Dow. The solar components on this home, which includes a demonstration of Dow’s solar shingle, will produce enough energy to supply all of this home’s electricity needs plus additional electricity that can be sold back to the local utility company for energy credits.

The house uses geothermal heat pumps to heat and cool the home, solar water heating systems to provide hot water, as well as LED light bulbs, and ultra-high efficiency appliances can be found throughout the house. The Vision Zero house, located in Bay City, Michigan, will also be an educational center for builders and consumers for one year, providing tours, training and hands-on demonstrations.

Via: Dow Chemical Company [Press Release]

OLEDs, which are said to lead the next wave of innovation in the TV space (after back-lit LCDs and 3D displays), come with plenty of advantages: they produce gorgeous images, they are self-luminous, light, and they’re flexible – very flexible. Case in point: a super-thin, Sony-made 4.1-inch OLED that actually wraps around a pencil, shown today in Japan.

The display is just 80μm thick, offers 432 x 240 resolution (121 ppi), a contrast ratio of around 1,000:1, and produces 100 cd/m2 brightness. Sony says the OLED can be wrapped around a pencil with just a 4mm radius. And the OLED can actually continue to display images and video while being rolled up, which is (according to Sony) a world’s first.

Unfortunately, the OLED is just a prototype, but those of you who attend the SID event in Seattle this week will be able to see the screen in action. All the others can drool over the display in the short (but pretty cool) video embedded below.

Via Prison Planet.com » World News

Richard Pendlebury and Christian Gysin
UK Daily Mail
Wednesday, May 26th, 2010

After the unrewarding task of trying to keep Labour in power, Lord Mandelson is no doubt relieved to be back in the old routine – courting the rich and famous.

The former Business Secretary is pictured in the passenger seat of a black open-top Ferrari Daytona Spider, worth at least £250,000. At the wheel is his friend, 38-year-old banking heir Nat Rothschild, who was offering hospitality to the Labour peer at one of his chalets in Klosters, in the Swiss Alps.

The picture is proof, if it were needed, that Lord Mandelson has a taste for the kind of high life that would otherwise be beyond his purse.

Of course, now he has departed Westminster following the general election defeat, the chance of making his own fortune beckons again.

Yesterday there were reports that he could be the next chief executive of the troubled petroleum giant BP. Anji Hunter, Tony Blair’s former gatekeeper, has previously served as the company’s communications chief.

Full article here

Imposter! The View’s Whoopi Goldberg is mortified after learning that an online phantom has stolen her identity and is flooding the web with bogus Tweets with the help of an unverified Twitter account.

“I need everybody on Twitter to know there is someone pretending to be me. I have no account… I don’t ever wanna (sic) be on Twitter. The person who is answering your questions is a fake. Let everybody know. I’m not on Twitter,” the Oscar winner told View viewers this week.

Yahoo Inc. and Nokia have joined forces in providing each other applications that will help them penetrate in a wider scale the growing market of Internet and mobile users. Yahoo will use Nokia’s navigation and location services, while Nokia will maximize Yahoo’s mail and messaging capabilities. Yahoo’s DNA, said CEO Carol Bartz, is made up of partnerships.

And so the company is doing just that. Yahoo is extending its services this time through mobile social networking. It has acquired the social networking site Koprol which is based in Jakarta, Indonesia, cites Cnet. The key is for people to connect with friends, share photos, start discussions, and locate establishments while on the go. “…we are introducing the Yahoo brand to many new-to-Net users,” explained Senior Vice President Roe Tsou, Asian Region, Yahoo.

Koprol is capable of providing a comprehensive database of activities and resources that Yahoo will utilize to emerge in the growing trend of localized social networks for mobile users. More features and applications that will bring Yahoo’s homepage and services more accessible are on the way. Yahoo is even eyeing for the Blackberry.

Related posts:

1. Yahoo teams up with Nokia for navigation services
2. Yahoo and Nokia team up in online services
3. Facebook On Mobile

The 9^th season champion of a reality TV Show, The Biggest Loser, had already been determined through last Tuesday night’s live finale broadcast by the NBC. The lucky guy who had the grand prize of $250,000 was Michael Ventrella.

Michael Ventrella was a 30-year old deejay from Chicago, Illinois. He stands 6‘3” and weighs 526 lbs at the start of the season. He was the heaviest contestant in the entire history of The Biggest Loser. After six months, he now weighs 262 lbs. which gives him a weight loss of 264 and a 50.19% weight loss percentage. With these results, he was crowned as the winner of the reality TV show.

Ashley Johnston, a 27-year old manager/esthetician from Knoxville, Tennessee, finished the event in second place. Johnston weighs 374 lbs. at the start of the competition and finishes of with 191 lbs. She had loss 183 lbs. and 48.93% weight loss percentage.

Next to Ashley Johnston was Daris George.  George is from Ardmore, Oklahoma and a student of  Oklahoma State University. He is 26 years of age and had entered the competition with a weight of 346 lbs. which went down to 176 lbs. after the six-month duration of the competition. With this result, he finishes the event as the third place.

Related posts:

1. Who Won Biggest Loser 2010?
2. Biggest Loser Season Finale Results
3. The Biggest Loser Make Over Week

Apple’s stock market capitalization (AAPL) has not yet quite surpassed Microsoft’s (MSFT), but the value of its actual business is now higher.

Specifically, Apple’s business is now worth $200 billion, while Microsoft’s is only worth $197 billion*–at least by one simple calculation of enterprise value.

What’s the difference between a company’s stock market capitalization and the value of its actual business (which is referred to as “enterprise value”)?

A company’s stock market capitalization includes the net value of the cash and debt on the company’s books.  To figure out the imputed value of the company’s actual business, therefore, you have to adjust for the value of those other things.

As an example, consider a company with a market capitalization of $1 billion that has $500 million of cash and no debt.  If you were to buy all of the stock in this company, you would spend $1 billion.  When you bought the company, however, you would also acquire the $500 million of cash that came with it, so your net purchase price would only be $500 million.  So the company’s actual business, in this case, would have been worth only $500 million.

If the same company had a $1 billion market capitalization, $500 million of cash, and $500 million of debt, meanwhile, the company’s business (“enterprise value”) would be $1 billion. You would get the $500 million of cash, but you’d also have to pay off the $500 million of debt, so the net cost to buy the company would be $1 billion.

As of yesterday’s stock market close, Apple had a market capitalization of $223 billion.  Apple has $23 billion of cash and no debt*.  Apple’s enterprise value, therefore, is $200 billion (per Yahoo Finance–see clarifying note below*).

Microsoft, meanwhile, had a market capitalization of $228 billion.  Microsoft has $37 billion of cash and $6 billion of debt (per Yahoo Finance).  Microsoft’s enterprise value, therefore, is $197 billion.

So, it’s official: Apple is now worth more than Microsoft.

(And if you don’t consider this an absolutely remarkable turn of events, read this >.  It really puts the changing of the guard over the past decade in perspective.)

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* As several sharp-eyed readers note, Apple has an unusual method of accounting for some of its cash on hand, which is that it classifies $18 billion of cash as a long-term investment.  (This is because the cash is invested in Treasuries with maturities of more than a year).  When this cash is included in the company’s cash balance, Apple has $42 billion of cash on hand, not $23 billion.  This reduces its enterprise value by $18 billion or so, which still puts it below Microsoft’s, at least for a few more days.  Yahoo Finance’s simple calculation of enterprise value is defensible, but a more detailed analysis of Apple’s liquid assets shows that the market still values Microsoft’s business more highly than Apple’s. 

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See Also:

• Okay, This Really Puts The Microsoft-Apple War In Perspective
• CHART OF THE DAY: Apple Market Cap Just $5 Billion Behind Microsoft
• CHART OF THE DAY: Microsoft Spends Eight Times As Much On R&D As Apple